All You Need is Paper (and a little love) ESL/EFL activities

My fifth-graders have been studying about mold and mushrooms. We created this paper mushroom art to illustrate an activity in which we discussed what they knew about mushrooms and what they would like to know about them. They wrote their ideas on a separate sheet of paper to glue on the back of their mushroom gardens. I was surprised at how much they knew and how curious they were. We all came to the conclusion that mushrooms are fascinating, especially the biolumenescent ones. We're saving these to show parents on the last day of class when we have an open house for them.  

 I guess you can tell which story this is. That's right, my 5th graders read an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk. We were studying the sequence of a story and they had to answer two questions about the story and then had to complete a chart with what happened first, next, then, and finally . I thought the chart was somewhat dull so I asked them to draw a part of the beanstalk and write their answers and the sequence on the leaves of the beanstalk. I thought the process and the outcome was a lot more memorable and also pleasing to the eyes. Some students even got creative and added some 3D paper butterflies. Love how the same activity always comes out different and shows each child's personality.

  LOVED how these sunflowers turned out! My fifth graders were studying about how harmless things can become harmful and they read a text about sunflowers taking over a park. We used the scraping paint technique to make the background for the flowers and I asked them to use only black and white to draw the flowers so they would stand out. On another piece of paper, they had to write about the plants they had in or around their house. They then glued it on the back of the sunflower paper. We will most likely make a book with all the work they have been creating. Viva colors!

Students made a jungle with a sleepy snake in a tree to illustrate a trip to the jungle with their families. We used pieces of a thin cardboard from food boxes as tree trunks and different shades of crepe paper for the tree leaves. They finger painted the trunks and and the jungle and wrote a trip to the jungle on their work after everything had dried. I gave them the snake already cut out of red paper so they just had to add the details they wanted and glue it wherever they believed a snake would like to be in the jungle. I don't think many of them have ever been to the jungle with their families but who knows, maybe they will one day.